Enhancing our Visitor Experience

We’re always looking for new ways to continue to enhance and improve our visitor’s experience when they come to Eilean Donan, and 2019 will see the latest addition in a long line of new developments.

We are delighted to formally announce that we will be launching a brand new Audio Guide service when we reopen for the new season on 1st of February 2019. The state of the art, user-friendly guides will initially offer detailed information on the castle in 8 different languages, specifically; English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Mandarin.

Given the incredible range of different nationalities that visit the castle, further languages will be added to this list in future years. The significant financial investment by the Conchra Charitable Trust in the development and provision of the Audio Guides will add greatly to the existing high quality interpretation at the castle. Content includes detail on the surrounding area, historical information and snippets of the intriguing details not always picked up on other tours.

Whilst the new service will clearly help visitors to engage more, our wonderful castle guides will still be on hand to answer questions and add that personal touch that we’re so famed for.

In addition to theses audio guides, we are also adding to our on-site visitor services with the construction of an extension to the existing visitor centre. The new building will include a new ticket office with automated ticketing machines, a takeaway catering facility, first aid suite and much needed administration offices. Alongside this we have just completed the construction of a new secure locker facility allowing visitors to leave bags and luggage in a safe location while visiting the castle. Visitor numbers to Eilean Donan have more than doubled in the last 10 years and all these new services will help us to better manage the operation, particularly during the busy peak months.

Eilean Donan Castle wins a prestigious Scottish Thistle Award.

Eilean Donan Castle has won national recognition at the annual Scottish Thistle Awards held on Thursday the 15th of March 2018.

Regarded as the “Oscars” of the industry, Scottish tourism’s premier awards ceremony sponsored by Fishers, took place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. 16 individuals, businesses and events were honoured for their innovation, excellence and success in the hospitality and tourism sector. In celebration of the Scottish Thistle Awards’ 25th anniversary, ten past Silver Thistle winners were also in attendance.

Still Game and River City star Sanjeev Kohli co-hosted the evening with STV presenter and former Miss Scotland, Jennifer Reoch. Entertainment was provided by ventriloquist and comedian Paul Zerdin, and Hannah Rarity, BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2018.

Organised by VisitScotland in association with the Aberdeen City and Shire Tourism Awards, Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards, HIT Scotland, Scotland Food and Drink, Scottish Licensed Trade Association, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Sportscotland and Wild Scotland. With a record-breaking 750 entrants this year, these prestigious awards are without doubt the ones our industry leaders want to have in their trophy cabinet!

The award caps an incredible few months for the Eilean Donan team which also saw them win their second Highlands & Islands Tourism Award, and attain its 5th Star in the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme.

General Manager David Win writes-“The entire team at Eilean Donan are truly delighted to win a prestigious Scottish Thistle. This award represents the culmination of many years of sustained commitment and investment to providing the very best visitor experience and services. We’d also like to congratulate ALL other finalists and winners in this year’s Thistle Awards. From a personal perspective, I simply couldn’t be prouder or more happy for the entire Eilean Donan team. I always believed we had the potential to be considered amongst the very best in the business. This award from our peers confirms our rightful place amongst the other stars of Scottish Tourism.”

HITA Awards 2017 - Best Heritage Tourism Experience

Friday 3rd November saw many of the Eilean Donan team gather with the tourism industry’s finest at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness for the prestigious HITA 2017 Awards. This annual event celebrates the very best of tourism operators within the Highlands & Islands and has become a real fixture in the tourism calendar. With a record-breaking 232 entrants this year, the awards have firmly established themselves as the benchmark for the industry.

We were finalists in the brand new category of “Best Heritage Tourism Experience,” introduced to mark the Year of Heritage, History & Archaeology, and despite the fact that we were previous winners of the Best Visitor Attraction award back in 2014, we really had no idea what to expect.

Well incredibly, we won our 2nd Piper Trophy, and will now go forward to the Grand Final of the Scottish Thistle Awards on the 15th of March 2018 along with four other Regional Winners of the category.

To say we are hugely proud and delighted is a massive understatement! It has been an incredible year for everyone involved with the castle and has seen record-breaking visitor numbers for the 6th consecutive year.

Without doubt, it is the sheer commitment, professionalism and effort from the entire team that has led to this success, and without whom we would simply not excel in what we do. On behalf of the Conchra Charitable Trust who operate Eilean Donan, I’d just like to thank each and every one of them!

Castle gains two nominations in prestigious industry awards.

Everyone loves recognition for a job well done, and the entire team at Eilean Donan are no different! So we’ve all been absolutely thrilled to recently learn that we have received not one, but two prestigious nominations for industry awards.

The first nomination is as one of four shortlisted finalists in this year’s Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards, in the category of Best Heritage Tourism Experience. These awards are a regional part of the acclaimed Scottish Thistle Awards, and represent the very pinnacle of achievements within the Scottish tourism industry, so as you can imagine, we’re all very proud to be even considered. We were truly delighted to win the HITA award for Best Visitor Attraction back in 2014, so a further nomination is a great reward for our on-going commitment to providing the very best visitor experience we can possibly deliver. The Awards Ceremony will be held at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness on the night of the 3rd of November, and is always a highlight of the Highlands & Islands tourism calendar!

Our second award nomination is for Best Wedding Venue – Highlands & Islands, in this year’s VOWS Awards. It’s the first time ever that we’ve been recognised in these awards, and it’s even more special as it’s our Brides & Grooms from weddings at the caste who are directly responsible for our nomination. Rona, our wedding co-ordinator is super-excited, and will be attending the awards ceremony in Glasgow on the 20th of November.

Ultimately, it’s the dedicated team of people at Eilean Donan along with their hard work and effort that is being recognised in these nominations. As a team of only 65 strong during the peak months, we have welcomed over half a million visitors to the site in 2017. To receive industry recognition of the jobs we all do and love is accolade in itself, regardless of whether we win or lose on finals nights!

So after a great deal of effort we have finally managed to install our brand new live streaming webcam, located over at our Eilean Donan Apartments development. Offering a completely different perspective, the camera is now up and running and beaming video to all corners of the world. Over the last 5 years, our first webcam, located at the Visitor Centre of the castle has proved hugely popular, with quite literally millions of people utilising it. On site, we share a direct web-link for this camera to our visitors, and many of them will phone friends and family just so they can log on and enjoy a wee wave or greeting from their loved ones on the other side of the camera.

Our 2nd camera, offers an entirely different view, and has been mounted on the lee side of one of the Eilean Donan Apartments chimneys which helps to provide a little shelter from the worst of the highland wind and weather. The other benefit of this location is that it offers reasonably high elevation to view the castle across Loch Long, with Dornie Bridge in the foreground.

As is the way in the highlands, the light around the castle is always changing, and is hugely influenced by the season, the weather, the time of day or the turning of the tides, so you’re guaranteed a different view every time you log on for a look. Indeed if our first camera is anything to go by, many of you are likely to have a wee daily peek, just to see what’s going on!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy the new facility, and for those of you might be viewing from abroad, try to remember the time difference. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who contact us saying the camera’s not working without realising that night-time here can be pitch black!!!